Making trade work for women in West Africa

This project aims to support equitable access to trading opportunities by addressing gender-based constraints which prevent women from exploiting the full potential of trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area. It is implemented in West Africa along the Tema – Ouagadougou and Abidjan – Lagos corridors and their border covering 6 countries. These countries include Benin Burkina Faso Ghana Ivory Coast Nigeria and Togo. This project spans 2 Regional Economic Communities: the Economic Community for West African States and West African Economic and Monetary Union. The project seeks to ensure that the African Continental Free Trade Area benefits all stakeholders especially women traders. It does so by addressing gender specific challenges such as informality low value of traded products limited access to finance markets and business networks and the burden of paid and unpaid care work. Project activities include: (1) building capacity for border officials women traders and their associations and regional and national actors through training advocacy and dialogue; (2) building capacity for regional and national actors in reviewing and implementing gender-responsive trade policies regulations procedures and frameworks; (3) enhancing cross-border coordination to increase challenges resolution; (4) building capacity and knowledge sharing on regional market opportunities; (5) developing and training on innovative financial and non-financial tools and services adapted to the needs of women traders; (6) building capacity on environmentally sustainable products and trade practices; and (7) strengthening regional value chains to be inclusive and environmentally sustainable.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) reduced gender-based barriers to trade policy implementation in West Africa; (2) enhanced implementation of gender-responsive inclusive and environmentally sustainable reforms action plans and frameworks by African governments and regional economic communities; and (3) strengthened inclusion gender equality and environmental sustainability in key regional value chains in West Africa.